Strikeforce finale results/photos: Martins strikes way past Gurgel

OKLAHOMA CITY – Despite a couple of scorecards, it was a dominant performance for Adriano Martins in his Strikeforce debut.

Martins stalked down Jorge Gurgel throughout the fight, keeping him constantly circling away from his power, and punched his way to a unanimous decision victory with a pair of 29-28 scores and a 30-27.

The lightweight bout was part of the preliminary card of the “Strikeforce: Marquardt vs. Saffiedine” event at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City – the promotion’s final show. The untelevised fight took place prior to prelims on Showtime Extreme and a main card on Showtime.

Martins dropped Gurgel in the first round and quickly moved inside looking for a possible finish. With referee Kevin Nix looking on, he landed some good punches. But Gurgel covered up enough to survive the onslaught. As Gurgel looked for a way out, with Martins kicking at his legs, he landed a wheeling upkick that narrowly missed being on the button enough to change the direction of things.

But Martins later backed Gurgel to the fence and again landed almost at will. When Martins wasn’t getting inside, it was because he was almost constantly moving toward Gurgel with Gurgel circling away on the outside.

The second and third rounds were more of the same, though Gurgel had moments where he was able to work some offense with kicks. But Martins mostly moved right through them, and the theme of the fight seemed to be Gurgel’s corner calling for him to let things go and deliver some offense.

Despite a pair of judges giving him a round, he never really had Martins in any kind of trouble as the Strikeforce newcomer looked impressive in his promotional debut – which, of course, will also be his last fight for the promotion.

Martins (24-6 MMA, 1-0 SF) won for the fifth straight time and now has 11 wins in his past 12 fights. Gurgel (14-9 MMA, 2-4 SF) lost for the second straight time and fourth time in five fights, making a possible move to the UFC seem like a long shot.

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